


A post-mfhp Mac & Dee friendship fic.

by WeirdItalianPlumber



Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 16:31:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17790863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdItalianPlumber/pseuds/WeirdItalianPlumber
Summary: I just don't feel like thinking of a titleMac is still hurt after Luther's reaction to his coming out. He shows up at Dee's place, but Frank isn't there. Dee ends up returning a favor (nothing sexual)





	A post-mfhp Mac & Dee friendship fic.

**Author's Note:**

> I started this back in November, but finally got the inspiration to finish it last month. Before watching the episode, I caught a bit of a spoiler that said something like “after Luther rejects him, when Mac was laying with his head in her lap” I thought op was talking about Dee or Mrs. Mac and it was such an intriguing and weird concept to me, that I felt the need to write it. I need a nice friendship moment between the two. 
> 
> tw for a suicide attempt scene. Nothing really graphic, but it’s definitely an important part of this. It’s in italics, if you want to skip it. It’s based off Mac’s line about Dee in Chardee Macdennis.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Dee snaps when she enters her apartment.  

Mac is lying on her couch. He barely looks at her, “I forgot Frank isn’t living here anymore.”

“No, goddammit, he’s not. And neither are you.” Finally, finally, after 4 years she had her apartment to herself again. Things went south between Charlie and the Waitress and Frank immediately moved back into that filthy studio.

He doesn’t fight back or insult her and Dee feels an unwanted spike of worry for the man. She walks over to the couch, staring down at him, hands on hips, “Where were you today? You were supposed to be on our float. We had to use Cricket.”

“I was busy. Okay, Dee?” He sits up to glare at her.

Dee sits in the open space, staking out her territory before another of those assholes could take over her apartment again. Mac looks too defeated to argue. She groans, already hating herself for what she’s about to say. “C’mere,” she says patting her lap. He looks suspicious and mildly repulsed. “Clearly you’re depressed and shit, and I don’t want a gay man’s death on my hands if you off yourself.”  

It only takes a moment to remember all those years ago when the situations were reversed. After a game of Chardee MacDennis they had all separated. As the victor that day, Dennis had used his power to send Mac over to Dee’s to get her VCR for movie night. Plans were changed, though, when he burst through the door. He stopped mid-sentence upon finding Dee stretched across her couch, beer in hand.  

—-

_“What’s going on here?” Mac asks with an odd mix of curiosity and concern._

_“What d’you think?” she asks. “I’m an ugly bird who’s failed at life. It’d be better if I was dead, right? But I can’t even do that right.”_

_He approaches her for a closer inspection, some sort of insult poised on his tongue, when his foot sends an empty pill bottle across the floor. He doesn’t bother to look at it to know it’s not her name that’s on the label._

_Panic mode sets in, and his controlling side takes over. He grips her wrists, pulling her to a sitting position. “You gotta get that out of you,” he instructs. When she doesn’t make an attempt to move, he gives her another tug. “C’mon, you stubborn bitch,” Mac mutters, “Don’t make me drag you in there.” A thought occurs to him, and he adds, “Because then I-,” he gags lightly, trying to push the thought out of his mind. He looks her in the eyes, hoping to convey as much authority and clarity as possible, “I’m trying to help you.”_

_Looking tired, and paler than usual, she cooperates, disappearing into the bathroom with a click of the door._

_A short time later, Dee emerges from the bathroom, expecting the apartment to be empty. Instead, she finds Mac sitting on her couch, watching a muted television._

_“Water,” she explains when he looks up._

_“Sit,” he commands, then jumps up, “I got it.” It looks like she could fall over at any second, and it’s a long way to the floor for someone that lanky._

_Too tired to argue, Dee follows his instructions. He returns from the kitchen and passes her a glass. She expects him to leave, but instead, he sits, too. She takes a small sip._

_“Were you listening to me?” she asks, embarrassed and disgusted._

_“I wasn’t listening,” he clarifies, heavy on the last word. “I had to be sure you were doing it, and not trying something else stupid.”_

_“Why do you care?” Dee asks._

_“Suicide is a sin,” he states, simply._

_Dee shrugs, “We’re all going to hell anyway.”_

_“You don’t know that,” Mac responds, almost defensively. “The Lord is forgiving. You just have to love Him.”_

_“I feel like shit,” Dee sighs, instead of arguing._

_He puts his ugly boots on the coffee table, clearly planning on staying._

_“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” she asks, hoping to sound inconvenienced._

_“Nah,” he says, settling in. The VCR was his whole reason for coming over, and that’s right here. Bonus if saving Dee from trying anything again gave him some major points with The Big Man._

They didn’t talk about it the next day. It was so long ago that his memory is a little fuzzy, but Mac is pretty sure they didn’t talk at all. Everything went on as normal, but instead of joining in when Dennis called her a dumb bird, he laughed once, to save face, then turned the attention to his latest security plan to make Paddy’s safer.  

—-

He lays back down, head in her lap. He really doesn’t have the energy to trek over to another apartment.

Her fingers softly find their way through his hair. The touch too soothing and the moment too nice and fragile to insult her giant hands. Still, the situation isn’t as strange as it should be. With the change in the gang’s dynamics over the past year, they’ve become almost-real friends.

“Y’know, Dennis and I- me? I?- we did this as kids sometimes,” she begins softly. “When he would have some kind of breakdown over something stupid. Like the buzzer when we were on that game show. Or when Maureen dumped him for the millionth time that week. He’d always come into my room crying and yelling and I had to deal with that.” She’s not sure why she’s sharing this information, but it feels right.  

“This isn’t my job as a woman. To comfort men,” she says. “So whatever stupid sexist-”

“I came out to my dad today,” he interrupts.

“Oh,” she says, surprised. “Shit. How’d that go?”

“I don’t know. Not good, I think. He just walked out in the middle of it.”

“When you were telling him? What a dick move,” Dee muses.

“No,” Mac corrects. “I danced.” Before Dee has the chance to laugh at the idea of Mac on stage, jabbing his elbows all over and making an ass of himself, he continues speaking in a much softer tone. “I worked really hard on this dance. Every day for months. With this woman. It was kind of beautiful.”

“That’s-,” Dee begins, at a loss for words.  

“Frank was there. He looked proud,” Mac says and it sounds kind of distant.  

Dee feels a quick spike of jealousy. He never seemed proud of anything she’s done, unless it was for a scheme. And he’s certainly never been in the audience, supporting her during pageants or plays. She chooses to move past it.

“If you’re gonna be a pussy about it and keep drooling on my legs, then pass me the remote,” Dee says, but there’s no real cruelty to her tone.  

He leans forward slightly, reaching onto the coffee table and following her request. “Put something good on.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! It's nothing I'm especially proud of, but it was nice to explore. I struggled writing the flashback- not getting too graphic, and I'm not great at emotional scenes (or in life tbh).


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